Developer Diaries

Ridge Racer 7 Developer Diary # 6

Associate Producer Hideo Teramoto talks about how the Europe launch will complete the cycle.

Here is the fifth and final entry in GameSpy's series of exclusive developer diaries with Namco's Hideo Teramoto. To wrap things up, he talks about how the Ridge Racer 7 team developed what they consider to be a next-gen aural experience, immersing the player in 5.1ch Dolby Digital surround sound.

Ready to Roll

Hello, I'm Teramoto, the Associate Producer of the Ridge Racer series. On behalf of my team, I am bringing to you this final entry to the Developer Diary from our office in Nakameguro, Tokyo. Since this is my last entry, I'm going to take a relaxed approach, and write about my personal memories of Ridge Racer 7, along with some photos I've taken around the world.

May 2006, Los Angeles

It has only been 7 months, but it seems so long ago. On May 10th, 2006, we displayed our concept video, "Ridge Racer Vision 2010" at E3, which opened that day in Los Angeles.

In preparation for the competitive holiday sales, E3 is like a preliminary race for us. I was there, on the circuit known as E3, checking on titles displayed by other racing game constructors from around the world, to see how our title measures up to the competition.

The results: Well...Ridge Racer is a unique title that does not stir up any news on announcement of a launch-day release, and I remember that there weren't much attention towards the title.

However, I was not nervous at all, because although the concept video was named "2010", I was certain that our world's fastest development team will bring many of the ideas displayed, including the racers around the world to realization within the year.

Nov. 2006, Tokyo/Yokohama

November 11th. 6 months had passed since E3. PlayStation 3 goes on sale in Japan.

Even for our world's fastest Ridge Racer dev team, getting a title released on console launch does not come automatically. When the project first started, we had "Release Date = PS3 Launch" on our schedule. I still remember the solemn, somewhat ritualistic tension that was in the air.

The various adversities we had faced during development, insanely long meetings and all that work around the clock were definitely not "Automatic", but they were overcame by the zealous efforts of our staff. If we were unable to overcome just one of the many adversities, Ridge Racer 7 couldn't have been released on launch. We were facing the risk of missing launch every day.

D-day. I spent the night in Shibuya, and I saw the long line of people waiting for PlayStation 3 and copies of Ridge Racer 7 on the store shelves. We have succeeded.

That evening, I returned to my home in Yokohama, set up my PS3, and observed Ridge Racer Ranking being updated constantly (meaning that copies of Ridge Racer 7 have actually reached the players).
I stepped out of my apartment and I saw a beautiful sunset. Due to the monsoon climate (wet summer and dry winter) in Asia, we enjoy clear skies with high visibility during the winter months. These conditions create the most stunning sunsets, with beautiful gradation of colors and clear skylines showing the silhouette of Mt. Fuji in the distance.